Christmas Morning Chef Saver, A Decadent Brunch For A Crowd That Is Easy & Delicious

By Coco

Growing up my mother would make this dish for us; a casserole of sorts that she had found in an old Reader’s Digest or something and it was titled: The Christmas Morning Wife Saver. My feminist mother cringed every time she opened her recipe book – a collection of tear outs from newspapers and magazines, print outs from websites and emails. She would cringe if my brother would ask, “Mum, you making the Wife Saver this year?” She would cringe and say: “let’s give it another name, it’s a Strata! We should just call it a Christmas Strata.”

My only contention with calling it a Strata is that it’s a Strata of the weakest form. It’s made with white sliced bread, rather than artisan sourdough, Canadian bacon rather than Italian sausage and dry mustard instead of fresh Rosemary or thyme. But it’s damn delicious and now that I’m a mother who hosts Christmas and people over the holidays it DOES save time.

But I’m not a wife and contrary to old school popular belief, wives aren’t the only people who cook and if they’re in a happy marriage, they certainly don’t need to be saved! Just the whole positioning for the name of this recipe is a bit much, BUT if you are cooking on Christmas and have a house full of people you have to feed, this recipe is for you! It saves you from having to whip up something special on Christmas morning in the midst of opening presents, cleaning up after opening said presents and making the big meal for the evening. Simple to make, this ‘Chef Saver’ is prepared easily the night before and left in the fridge to set as you sleep. When you head downstairs, ahead of the kids, to open the presents, you just pop it in the over for an hour and you’re done!

It smells delicious, tastes just as good and is good for a crowd.

Here’s how:

Ingredients

12 slices of white bread – crusts removed. Good old Wonder Bread works best